Identifier: bookofgrassesill00franuoft (find matches)
Title: The book of grasses : an illustrated guide to the common grasses, and the most common of the rushes and sedges
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Francis, Mary Evans, 1876-1941
Subjects: Cyperaceae Grasses -- United States Juncaceae
Publisher: Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, Page
Contributing Library: Gerstein - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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hat bank wherethe wild thyme blows be in-accessible, the country holds manya marshy meadow wherein all man-ner of delightful acquaintances may bemade. In such marish places growpitcher-plants, dotting the swale withfairy parasols of rose and maroon,orchids, fragile and beautiful in pink andlavender, while treacherous sundews,plants of doom to the lesser members ofthe insect kingdom, are scattered amongthe sedges and rushes above which risethe taller grasses of moist grounds. In June when the season is at itsheight — though in reality it is only ap-preciation that is more vivid in earlysummer, for each week brings new bloomand colour to the marsh—the Blue-jointoften covers large areas, or appears inisolated specimens among the sedges.This grass is tall and slender, bearingnarrow flowering-heads which are usuaihstrongl\- tinged with bluish jnirple, andon some soils the dark green leaveschange to a dull purplish colour that isnoticeable even from a distance. Thein some localities the
Text Appearing After Image:
Blue-joint GrassCalamagroslis canadensis eeds ripen earlw andrass is a tlirficiilt one to (ind in bloom, as121 The Book of Grasses the flowers fade rapidly, leaving only pale-brown panicles of ripen-ing seeds. Occasionally the whole panicle fails to mature, and then the spikelets remainempty and faded. In the same wet meadowsNuttalls Reed-grass (Calama-grostis cinnoides) is found inmidsummer. A stout, reed-like grass is this species, withbroader leaves than Blue-joint, and with contractedpanicles which in the sunlightlook as if they had been dip-ped in dye of royal purple, sodeeply coloured are the tips ofthe individual spikelets. Theleaves of this grass are oc-casionally tinged with red asare, here and there, those ofother summer grasses thatthus anticipate the brilliancyof autumn. The flowering scales ofthese grasses are surroundedby soft hairs, and among thesehairs the slender awn of Blue-joint is almost lost. In Nut-talls Reed-grass the stouterawn is readily seen under themicrosco

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